El Salvador receives bids for renewables auction

El Salvador power utility, DELSUR, has announced that 19 companies has participated in a tender process to procure more than 1 GW from renewable energy sources.

The power utility has received 25 bids for 940 MW of solar projects and 4 bids for wind farms with capacity of 150 MW. According to Delsur, the total investment for the 29 projects is estimated at US$2 billion. The bidders include companies come from countries such as the US, Spain, France, Israel, UK and Germany, among others.  

The tender is for 170 MW of power generated exclusively from non-conventional renewable resources (solar and wind) and includes a contract for a period of 20 years starting from 2019. It is expected that the signing of the contracts takes places between late January and March 2017.

These types of initiatives comply with the National Energy Policy, which includes diversifying the energy matrix of El Salvador, as well as opening new windows for investment in the country. It is anticipated that this new tender process will generate an estimated investment of US$340 million to be developed during the next two years. 

Previously in 2014, Delsur and state authorities launched a similar tender process for 60 MW of solar energy and 40 MW of wind energy. Due to wind power companies bid higher than expected, a total of 4 solar plants totaling 94 MW were awarded under that renewable energy auction.